Anonymous wrote:Registering this forum would kill it.

The idea would be to establish a parallel forum as was done previously.

Anonymous wrote:I would not want to register. It would be too easy to figure who you and your kid/s are. I came across a few posts that I easily ID as someone on my kid’s team. I am glad they are not registered. If they want to ask about a new club, a coach, a question they are uncomfortable asking the coach, etc they deserve privacy.
I know a few coaches from big clubs that read this board. One was pissed and was asking around about stuff that was posted here. If you want to register put your kids name, age, club and team in your user name because that’s what you will be doing.

Why do you think having a username is equivalent to posting your kids details? It's not like Jeff is going to fork over your name and email address when someone gets upset at your post. As he has discussed in his AMA, if things are bad enough to subpoena for info, they're going to find you either way. The ultimate remedy is just to not post stupid stuff at all.

And frankly, you are new here, the longer you’re around the quicker you can pick out the BS from the truth and the quicker you can pick out the rival grudges. And, yes, even the grudges carry truth and info on both sides.

Not new here by a long shot. Regarding BS, if there was 10% BS and 90% truth, that would be fine. But's not, it's probably closer to the other way around.

And lastly, SoCal and Big Soccer Forums are excellent sites for discussing more macro soccer things as well as generic tactical or developmental issues parents have. DCUM is extremely local focused and is more gossip based. It is a tabloid and that is its appeal. Everyone knows multiple people at different clubs so logging in would kill the exchange.

Why can't we have both? Logging in might help separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak.

Have both versions and see which one lives or dies. Maybe they can live side by side in harmony. However, I guarantee that the users of the Registered blog will always come over to the free and open Anonymous blog because they couldn't resist, and they would secretly skulk and post. Oh the hypocrisy.

Yes! at least we could try it. If the registered list dies, so be it. And yes, I agree, registered users will always skulk around, it is human nature.

Make it Facebook authenticated and identified and watch how polite and civil these forums become in comparison. There will still be some who smear clubs, but at least you can validate their affiliations. With anon or “registered” anon there’s no way to validate anything anyone says here

Most of the complaints posted are of the variety, "omigosh, what if I am identified, I wouldn't want that" variety. Facebook authentication would be one more step down that path. It would certainly almost eliminate frivolous posting. But many people are not on facebook, or hate it. I think in the end, you would only have a handful of people willing to do that.

Anonymous wrote:I agree that it is concerning how much identifiable stuff is being said about kids and yes they do look at this forum. It has made me really feel bad about our team because I have an idea of the parents who say mean things. They are not great on sideline either.

I get the impression that sort of thing on the soccer forums is what costs Jeff a bunch of time. From time to time, things get out of hand and entire threads have to be removed for various reasons to protect people or clubs. Raising the likelihood of being caught might help minimize this sort of thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff is this forum profitable for you? Just curious if it’s your worth your time?

FYI, the best way to get in touch with Jeff is via the Website Feedback forum Or using the “report” feature in a post. He has an AMA that answers these questions and many more. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/877671.page

I already reported this thread to him to see if he wanted to chime in. If a poster is being nasty just report him/her. No need to register.

Thank you Mrs. Kravitz ... I think. It's funny that you reported this to him. He suggested that I create this thread over here in response to my post on the Website Feedback forum. I think you could probably identify half the posts over the past few weeks in the soccer forum as being nasty, so the reporting trick isn't working so well.

Anonymous wrote:

Heloise wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious, how do we know that "Blutarski" and "Heloise" aren't the same person logging into two different accounts? We don't.

I'm all for this kind of arrangement IF Facebook authentication is used. Short of that, it's all basically anonymous garbage. What's worse, having quasi-anonymous named accounts can amplify the effect of trolling.

Go ahead and ask Jeff, he’ll be able to tell you we’re not posting from the same IP address.

Do you have a phone? More than one? How about an iPad? Do you have a laptop?

That’s potentially four addresses right there. And it’s still just you.

Of course it's not going to be foolproof. Posting from named accounts only is not a guarantee that people won't abuse it, however in the cases where it has been used (socal) it does help reduce the useless chatter. I suspect that most frivolous posters don't go to the trouble of multiple accounts just to create their mischief. At least when you can see a name on a post, you can decide whether or not to read the next post from that name.

I suspect if this forum existed, we would see only a small fraction of people using it, but the quality of posts would be much improved.

Anonymous wrote:

Blutarski wrote:The circumstances of the last few weeks have caused most of the threads on the soccer forums to become even more clogged with hateful posts and/or folks trolling for arguments to the point that they are becoming useless.

If any of you have read any other "registered users only" forums like https://www.socalsoccer.com/ you'll know that the signal to noise ratio is quite a bit better there.

Demonstrating enough interest is the first step in getting the attention of the site owners.
If you would be interested in a soccer forum like this with posts only from registered users (no anonymous posts), please respond by posting here. Double points for posting from a registered account!!

They just register under aliases so it's still anonymous.

While this is true, that is exactly the arrangement on the socal forum and there is way less BS on there. Must be creating just enough visibility to deter people.
At least you can identify who the rotten apples are, and on the socal forum, you can even choose to not view those folks posts.

Done!

The circumstances of the last few weeks have caused most of the threads on the soccer forums to become even more clogged with hateful posts and/or folks trolling for arguments to the point that they are becoming useless.

If any of you have read any other "registered users only" forums like https://www.socalsoccer.com/ you'll know that the signal to noise ratio is quite a bit better there.

Demonstrating enough interest is the first step in getting the attention of the site owners.
If you would be interested in a soccer forum like this with posts only from registered users (no anonymous posts), please respond by posting here. Double points for posting from a registered account!!

The soccer forums are almost unusable for anything but bashing others these days. Jeff Steele is there any way we can try a registered users only subtopic in there? Online Soccer forums seem that do not allow anonymous posting have a much higher signal/noise ratio.

omg Jeff Steele, can we pleeeease have a soccer forum with only registered users? There are more troll posts than informative ones.

Anonymous wrote:I’d assume you are on the back burner while they hope to get better players in April.

Now that would be a real reputation builder for WS... make the promise of an offer, then reneg because they magically found a better player.

Anonymous wrote:

Blutarski wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great falls and Reston partner with WS. Yet, Mclean has not.

Why?

Because their paid staff take a financial hit and lose control.

(REPEAT AFTER ME: Money and Control)

So what's the truth. Is it really about the kids?

Remember that when you talk all the loyalty BS....because one paying customer is easily replaced by another.

Go back and reread your post... You sound like a scorned and bitter woman.

Disagree. We are in McLean and PP sounds exactly right. It is all about money. They maxed out every roster this year for that very reason. ECNL no different.

Well if you think your club is unique in that respect, you're wrong. FCV did the same thing at all levels. WS too. At least WS rotates their bench a little. But I digress. The PP was questioning why McLean does not join WS, as if WS isn't about the money as well.

Anonymous wrote:Great falls and Reston partner with WS. Yet, Mclean has not.

Why?

Because their paid staff take a financial hit and lose control.

(REPEAT AFTER ME: Money and Control)

So what's the truth. Is it really about the kids?

Remember that when you talk all the loyalty BS....because one paying customer is easily replaced by another.

Go back and reread your post... You sound like a scorned and bitter woman.

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is there is no middle school baseball in MCPS Middle Schools, does anyone know why this is the case?

This doesn't help you in MCPS, but in LCPS, the local little league created teams at two middle schools ..

http://www.llbaseball.org/middle-school-baseball/

This has only happened in the last few years... might be a path to follow in MCPS.

RantingSoccerDad wrote:I realize this is spam-ish, but I have literally just written something on this very topic, and unlike other work I'm doing, it's free.

I've made a guide that explains the local leagues. It's candid, maybe even a little opinionated, but I've made an effort to be fair and to explain what you'll get out of each league.

(Of course, your happiness in travel soccer is determined more by the coaches and other kids than it is by the league. But it's impossible to review every coach in the area, let alone every kid. This gives you just a bit of information -- and might help you figure out if your coach is selling your a bridge to nowhere.)

If you have to remove it because it's advertising, I understand, but again -- it's LITERALLY what the OP was asking for:

https://rantingsoccerdad.com/youth-soccer-area-guide-the-dmv-washington-d-c-plus-suburbs-and-exurbs/

One suggestion... an important league in the picture is NPL which is a league of leagues, of which VPL is just one. Although the level of play in VPL is spotty and has not produced many state cup champions, the format of the league does offer a pathway to a national championship. Sort of an ECNL 'lite'.

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Added ADP, PPA, SAM, MSI and OSBL/CMSSL.

Thanks for the feedback. This is terrific.

Now if you know people in other areas who want to sound off on soccer in their region, please put them in touch!

Awesome! Thanks RSD. Finally there is someone even more nuts than me about this stuff.